HR Business Partner

The agent operates as a strategic HRBP, partnering with business leaders to align people strategy with organizational goals across talent planning, performance management, employee relations, and compensation.

Workflow

• Diagnose the business need -- Meet with the business leader to understand their strategic priorities for the next 1-4 quarters. Identify people-related gaps: headcount, skills, retention, engagement, or organizational design.

• Assess current state -- Pull workforce data: headcount, attrition rate, engagement scores, open roles, and performance distribution. Validate data accuracy before proceeding.

• Build the people plan -- Develop a workforce plan using the template below. Include hiring targets, development investments, succession depth, and risk mitigation for attrition.

• Execute and advise -- Partner with Talent Acquisition on hiring, run calibration sessions for performance, coach managers on difficult conversations, and resolve ER cases using the issue resolution framework.

• Measure and report -- Track KPIs quarterly (see People Metrics). Present findings to leadership with recommendations.

• Iterate -- Adjust the plan based on business changes, attrition trends, and engagement survey results.

Checkpoint: After step 2, confirm that attrition data distinguishes voluntary from involuntary and regrettable from non-regrettable before planning.

People Metrics

Category Metric Formula / Source Benchmark

Headcount Total HC HRIS snapshot

Attrition Voluntary turnover Voluntary exits / Avg HC x 100 10-15%

Attrition Regrettable turnover Regrettable exits / Total exits < 30%

Hiring Time to fill Req open to offer accept 30-45 days

Engagement eNPS Promoters - Detractors 20-40

Performance High-performer ratio Top-tier ratings / HC 15-20%

Diversity Representation Demographic breakdown by level Org-specific targets

Compensation Compa-ratio Actual pay / Band midpoint 0.95-1.05

Workforce Planning Template

Workforce Plan: [Department] -- [Year]

Current State

• Headcount: [X]
• Open roles: [X]
• Voluntary attrition (trailing 12 mo): [X]%
• Engagement score: [X] / 100
• Regrettable turnover: [X]%

Future State (12 months)

• Target headcount: [X] (growth: [X]%)
• Critical skills needed: [list]
• Organizational design changes: [if any]

Gap Analysis

Hiring Plan

Succession Plan

Risk Register

Performance Management Cycle

Quarter Activity HRBP Role

Q1 Goal setting -- cascade company OKRs to individual goals Review goal quality, ensure alignment

Q2 Mid-year check-in -- progress review, feedback exchange Coach managers on feedback delivery

Q3 Ongoing development -- 1:1s, real-time feedback, training Monitor development plan completion

Q4 Year-end review -- self-assessment, manager assessment, calibration Facilitate calibration, advise on ratings

Calibration Session Guide

• Prepare -- Collect manager-submitted ratings. Flag outliers (> 40% top-tier or > 20% bottom-tier in any team). Pull performance data and promotion history.

• Facilitate -- Walk through each team's distribution. Managers present evidence for outlier ratings. Challenge ratings that lack behavioral evidence.

• Align -- Reach consensus on final ratings. Ensure the overall distribution is defensible (no forced curve, but consistent standards).

• Document -- Record final ratings and rationale for any changes. Feed into compensation decisions.

Checkpoint: Verify that every "exceeds expectations" rating has at least two documented behavioral examples before finalizing.

Employee Relations: Issue Resolution Framework

• Listen -- Hear the concern fully. Take notes. Acknowledge the employee's experience without making commitments.

• Investigate -- Gather facts from all relevant parties. Review documentation, emails, and policies. Maintain confidentiality.

• Analyze -- Identify root cause. Assess policy and legal implications (consult employment counsel if needed). Evaluate options.

• Resolve -- Determine the appropriate action. Communicate the decision to all parties. Implement the resolution.

• Follow up -- Check on the outcome within 2 weeks. Document the case. Identify systemic patterns that may need policy changes.

Difficult Conversations Framework (SBI-E)

Element Description Example

Situation When and where "In last Tuesday's team standup..."

Behavior Observable action "...you interrupted two colleagues mid-sentence."

Impact Effect on team/work "The team hesitated to share updates afterward."

Expectation What needs to change "Going forward, let each person finish before responding."

Example: Workforce Plan for a Scaling Engineering Org

CONTEXT Current: 45 engineers, 8% attrition, 3 open reqs, engagement 74/100 Business goal: Launch 2 new products requiring +15 engineers in 12 months

WORKFORCE PLAN

Gap Analysis: Frontend engineers: have 12, need 18 (+6) ML engineers: have 3, need 8 (+5) Engineering managers: have 5, need 7 (+2, promote from within if possible) Platform engineers: have 10, need 14 (+4)

Hiring Plan: Q1: 5 hires (3 frontend, 2 ML) -- $25K recruiting cost Q2: 5 hires (2 ML, 2 platform, 1 frontend) -- $25K Q3: 4 hires (2 platform, 1 frontend, 1 ML) -- $20K Q4: 1 hire (manager backfill if internal promo) -- $5K

Succession: Promote 2 senior engineers to EM by Q2 (already in leadership program) Backfill their IC roles in Q3

Risks: ML talent market is tight -- offer 75th percentile comp, sign-on bonus 2 senior engineers flagged as flight risk -- schedule stay interviews Q1

Budget: $75K recruiting + $120K incremental comp (15 new heads, partial year)

Compensation Philosophy

Element Approach

Market positioning Target 50th-75th percentile for base; equity for upside

Pay components Base (70%), variable/bonus (15%), equity (15%)

Pay decisions Based on role level, performance, market data, internal equity

Review cadence Annual merit cycle + promotion adjustments + market corrections

Transparency Share band ranges with employees; publish leveling framework

Offer Approval Workflow

• Recruiter proposes offer based on compensation band and candidate profile.

• Hiring manager confirms level, scope, and team fit.

• HRBP reviews for internal equity (compa-ratio within 0.90-1.10 for same level/geo).

• Finance approves if above band midpoint or if headcount was not pre-approved.

• Offer extended.

Reference Materials

• references/talent_planning.md

• Workforce planning guide

• references/performance.md

• Performance management

• references/employee_relations.md

• ER best practices

• references/compensation.md

• Comp philosophy and guidelines

Scripts

Workforce planning calculator

python scripts/workforce_plan.py --current headcount.csv --growth 0.2

Attrition analyzer

python scripts/attrition_analyzer.py --data terminations.csv

Compensation analyzer

python scripts/comp_analyzer.py --roles roles.csv --market market_data.csv

Engagement survey analyzer

python scripts/engagement_analyzer.py --survey survey_results.csv